Baby Madeleine’s story

Belinda and Mark were ecstatic to be bringing their first baby into the world. But sadly their joy and excitement of finding out they were expecting, was very short lived.

At only eleven weeks pregnant Belinda began experiencing serious complications, then at just 23 weeks her waters broke.

Still in the early stages of her pregnancy, her joy quickly turned to worry and fear.

“My partner Mark and I were over the moon when we found out in March 2016 that we were going to have a baby, it was a very exciting surprise for both of us,” Belinda said.

“I was quickly put on bed rest at Mater Mothers’ Hospital; all the while knowing that the longer I was able to prolong the pregnancy, the better our chances were of bringing a healthy baby into the world.

“The weeks on bed rest were long and exhausting, but with every week that our baby held on we grew more and more positive.”

Belinda passed the time with lots of visitors helping to keep her mind at ease, before a scan at 33 weeks revealed that baby Madeleine had stopped growing. Doctors decided it was time for her to arrive into the world.

“That moment was terrifying, we had already had a few false starts in the birthing suites but this time it was very real. We knew that Madeleine was already a small weight for her gestation, and we were extremely worried about her,” Belinda said.

Following ten gruelling weeks of bed rest at Mater Mothers’ Hospital for mum Belinda, baby Madeleine was born on 2 November 2016, weighing just 1.3 kilograms.

Fortunately, with the help of the specialist nurses and doctors at Mater’s Neonatal Critical Care Unit, Madeleine continued to grow, surprising everyone each and every day with her strength.

Baby Madeleine spent close to six weeks being cared for at Mater, before going home with her parents for the very first time.

With your support, more babies like Madeleine will continue to get the best possible start to life at Mater.